Friday, March 2, 2012

(CNN) -- When the first sod was laid on Donald Trump's billion-dollar championship golf resort in Scotland last April, few people could have predicted that less than a year later the whole project would be under threat.

The flamboyant American billionaire has publicly stated his intention of building "the greatest golf course in the world" on a stretch of protected sand dunes on the Aberdeenshire coast near Menie.

After a five-year planning battle to face down the objections of local campaigners and environmental groups, Trump himself cut the ribbon to start construction work in June 2010 -- and progress since then has been swift.

The 18-hole championship links course, designed by leading golf architect Dr. Martin Hawtree, will open in mid-2012.

But the accompanying hotel and leisure resort, nearly 1,500 holiday homes and houses plus a second course have been put on hold because of plans by a leading renewable energy supplier, Vattenfall, to build 11 giant wind turbines about a mile and a half (2 km) off the coast from Trump's land.

He has reacted furiously by threatening to mothball the project, and reportedly donated £10 million ($15.9 million) to an anti-wind farm group, Communities against Turbines Scotland. Read More